Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/151

RV 146 (LADY T'AI CHÊN)

The young girls listened in awe.

"How can you sing so gaily on such a day?" one asked.

"Would somberness be more seemly?"

"I'd be sad."

"Why?"

"To be giving up childhood. It's a big step."

Lady T'ai Chên laughed deliciously. "I gave up childhood three years ago when I became the concubine of Prince Shou. It was an excellent exchange. Never once did I find fault with my uncle's arrangements. He is indeed a capable official. It is a fallacy, my little one, to cling to dolls. It is much better sport to permit a man to believe you live for his every whim, and then oppose him in almost everything. Man loves the title of master, but he soon wearies of submission."

"Tush! Tush!" said the old Amah. She wondered why she put up with the caprices of her little mistress. She was in a somewhat chaotic state of mind, a mixture of shocked sensibilities and maternal tenderness. The old Amah had once been married. Almost half a century before her young husband had been drowned in RV 146 (146)